Hopefully no one's covered this...

[cyrano138]

...but I know one of the major complaints about the Southord jack knife pickset is that there is quite a long hook but no short hook, so here's what i did:
I ordered a replacement long hook, used my no. 2 needle file to grind it down, and replaced the broken key extractor (I'm not a locksmith so I can't see needing one on the fly) with it. Here is a pic...



Now for the part where I reveal what a moron I am, but hopefully save someone else the same headache. There is a large and small part of the rivet (?) that holds all the picks in. I used my punch but was trying to push it out from the wrong side, so I almost ruined the pickset. Fortunately I caught my mistake at the last minute and punched it out from the correct side. So for those of you interested, punch it out from side without the logo on it. That's the side with the smaller hole, pushing towards the side with the logo, or the side with the larger hole. I might be a complete idiot. Anyway the finished result is okay, I think.

Jack

[MBI]

Thanks. That info about the rivet is particularly useful.

[magician59]

Well done!

[cyrano138]

Thank you!

[uklockpicker]

Excellent thanks for the tip you did a cracking job

[mister sour]

I love the jacknife! great job. Little story; I was going into the local court house to support my sister in a case (custody) and I had my jacknife attached to my key ring. I set the metal detector off because I forgot my keys in my pocket. The bailiff took my keys from me and was about to give em back, but he noticed my jacknife. He started to try to open it as if it were a pocket knife, or course the tension wrench keeps all the picks secure, so opening it that way is impossible. I saw him starting to get baffled and fearing I may have broke a law by having those on me, in a courthouse, I quickly told him that it was a pocket knife and to just hold on to it til I was ready to leave. He looked at ease when I said that. I think he was a little embarressed he could'nt figure it out, and he gave me a numbered slip and then threw my keys in a numbered bucket and we went on our merry ways. I later got my keys back and left in peace. Moral of the story, be careful/mindful of where you keep ur picks.

[cyrano138]

I don't know why, but I find I always drive a little more carefully when I have my picks in my car because I don't want to have to explain to a cop why I have them and hope he believes I'm a hobbyist and not some kind of criminal.

I should echo for any newb's like myself considering purchasing this set, that it really is kind of a waste of money. I like them and I've used them to demonstrate my skills at a couple of friends' houses, but a small set of 5-10 picks is really only slightly less portable than a keychain attachment. I wasn't personally disappointed by this though because I was being completely honest with myself when I got mine; I just thought it was a cool gadget.

[Oldfast]

Nice job Cyrano.... it looks great! And that whole ordeal with the rivet...lol... sounds like somethin' my dumbass would do to.

..... fearing I may have broke a law by having those on me, in a courthouse, I quickly told him that it was a pocket knife and to just hold on to it til I was ready to leave .....

lol... nice

[huxleypig]

I love the jacknife! great job. Little story; I was going into the local court house to support my sister in a case (custody) and I had my jacknife attached to my key ring. I set the metal detector off because I forgot my keys in my pocket. The bailiff took my keys from me and was about to give em back, but he noticed my jacknife. He started to try to open it as if it were a pocket knife, or course the tension wrench keeps all the picks secure, so opening it that way is impossible. I saw him starting to get baffled and fearing I may have broke a law by having those on me, in a courthouse, I quickly told him that it was a pocket knife and to just hold on to it til I was ready to leave. He looked at ease when I said that. I think he was a little embarressed he could'nt figure it out, and he gave me a numbered slip and then threw my keys in a numbered bucket and we went on our merry ways. I later got my keys back and left in peace. Moral of the story, be careful/mindful of where you keep ur picks.

Lol, no shit! They're not even illegal to have over here and they still tried their best to screw me for it.

[cyrano138]

I wanted to follow up this post from a long time ago to say that the jackknife got me out of a jam this morning. I was headed over to a friend's house to pick up my surfboard and I forgot the key to the master lock on his gate. I happened to have my jackknife and used it to get in. So, it's not a complete waste of money, but if I hadn't ground down the hook on it it would have been useless. In summation, you're not going to open anything sophisticated with it, but if you need to pick a shitty master lock or kwikset it'll do.

[Oldfast]

Nice

[MortimerDuke]

I wanted to follow up this post from a long time ago to say that the jackknife got me out of a jam this morning. I was headed over to a friend's house to pick up my surfboard ...

...to go surfing in a hurricane. The jackknife may be getting you into a jam!

[Solomon]

Good stuff! I modified the hook on mine aswell but I still have the key extractor, it'd be cool to make a sort of slimline medium hook and put it in though. I actually filed the hook down months ago then promptly lost the feckin thing, this thread caused me to tear my room apart and whaddaya know, found it again... so thanks for that

I'm gonna mod the half diamond too, now that I've located it. The shaft is too thick and the tip is too small, as far as HD's go it's a complete waste of potential. I think they make them like that cos it's mostly newbies who buy these and they're expecting people to give them a really rough time. I really regret selling my old jackknife, not a big fan of the chrome finish on these new ones.

[cyrano138]

I wanted to follow up this post from a long time ago to say that the jackknife got me out of a jam this morning. I was headed over to a friend's house to pick up my surfboard ...

...to go surfing in a hurricane. The jackknife may be getting you into a jam!

It was pretty tame for a hurricane, really.

@Solomon: If I had it to do over again, I wouldn't buy it, but if I had to buy a jackknife type set, I'd get this.

[Solomon]

Meh. I actually prefer the one I made from wiper inserts and a pin vice over the jackknife lol, but that looks pretty cool. Much better pick selection although there's no way to keep wrenches on it and it doesn't look particularly comfortable either. Still, very cool. I haven't seen that one before, cheers